We woke up early so we could get a good head start to our day. Our first stop was to Cadillac ranch. It was very cool. I wish we had brought some spray paint so we could have tagged one of the cars (it’s legal and encouraged) but we had to settle for being spectators. There were so many layers of spray paint on the cars I wonder if there’s actually any actual car left.

From here, we were headed to the midway point of Route 66 but our bladders caused us to make a pitstop in Vega, TX. We killed two birds with one stone by stopping at a Route 66 museum to get our passports stamped and using their bathroom. The cool thing about the passport locations is that each one gives us a free gift like a sticker, keychain, postcard, etc. This particular museum gave us a postcard of the dust bowl, but it also included a little vile of actual dust bowl dust.

25 miles later we arrived at the midway point of Route 66. The halfway point of Route 66 is 1,139 miles. We drove way more than that though since we had to drive from CT to the beginning of Route 66. We calculated that since we left the house, we’ve driven roughly 2,355 miles.

Once we left the midway point of Route 66, we began our new path off of Route 66. We started heading south through New Mexico towards Carlsbad Caverns. For miles we drove through completely desolate desert. It was stunning. Even though we had about 3/4 of a tank of gas, we started to get worried about when and if we would ever again see a gas station or a bathroom. The second we found one, we used the bathroom and topped off our tank at a Valero in Clovis, NM. Gas was $2.929 per gallon and we used 7.414 gallons for $21.72.

We started our drive this morning around 8:15am and have been driving for about 6 hours but it’s only 1:13pm. Don’t ask me what time it is because I don’t know. We drove through another time zone in New Mexico. I guess now we’re in mountain time. It’s weird because I’m kinda tired, but I keep getting more time added to my day!

We’re about an hour away from Carlsbad Caverns and we’re super excited about getting there. On our way, we drove through a town called Roswell. We knew it sounded familiar for some reason so Eddie googled it. Apparently it’s a famous area due to a UFO sighting in 1947. We don’t feel any different after having driven through the town so I think we’re safe.

A few notes- still no cricket. I’m guessing he managed to escape the car. Eddie is insistent on touching a cactus in the desert even though I told him I don’t have many bandaids with us. I didn’t not sing in the car today which is probably why I’m still in the car and not on the side of the road in Roswell with the UFOs.

It’s only 96° out here. Looking forward to the 56° in the caverns. More later…..